the size of the platen never exceeded 13 by ig inches, because the impressions made 

 with a larger platen would not have been strong enough ; for prints larger than the 

 platen, the bed was moved and the platen pulled down twice.) He had the press 

 returned to Pezzana and set out to build a more suitable printing machine. 



He found there were other means to be 

 employed beside a Type Press, and hav- 

 ing examined the Theory of his Inven- 

 tion put it in Practice, by erecting a 

 Rolling Press of another Construction 

 than what is used for printing Copper 

 Plates. 



In Paris Jackson had suggested 

 using a cylinder press for printing 

 wood blocks. The gentlemen to 

 whom the suggestion was made. 

 Count de Caylus, Coypel, and Mari- 

 ette, were sure that the enormous 

 pressure would split the blocks. The 

 Englishman, on the contrary, felt 

 that the pressure, properly controlled 

 by a chase, would hold the blocks 

 together. Printing would be much 

 more rapid and the exceptional vigor 



of the impression would suggest a hand drawing. The use of cylinder presses 

 for chiaroscuro printing was already well known to experts. George Lallemand 

 and Ludolph Businck, sometime between 1623 and 1640, had used not one but 

 a series of six cylinders on three joined presses, with three printers simultane- 

 ously inking separate blocks with different tones. Impressions were then printed 

 from each block in succession. Papillon"" described this press, and also another 

 with a special chase designed at an unspecified date by Nicolas Le Sueur. Jack- 

 son's prints show a much stronger impression than those of Businck or Le Sueur. 

 No details of his press are known, although Thomas Bewick" reported that 

 Jackson as an old man had shown him a drawing of its construction. 



Illustration in Biblia Sacra published 

 by Hertz, Venice, 1740, vol. i. Origi- 

 nally cut by Jackson for Albrizzi's Istoria 

 del Testatnento Vecchio e Nuovo, Venice, 

 1737. Actual size. 



'■^ Papillon, vol. 2, 1766, pp. 372-373. 



"Bewick, 1925, p. 213. 



28 



